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Brawling in Avs rookie Bordeleau's blood

Enforcer played for 10 pro teams before NHL debut

By Adrian Dater The Denver Post

Posted:
01/27/2013 11:05:24 PM MST

Updated:
01/27/2013 11:06:34 PM MST

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Some hockey fighters hate their jobs. Brent Severyn, the Avalanche's enforcer in the 1996-97 season, equated punching opponents to punching a timecard. Chris Simon, the fighter on the Avs' Stanley Cup-winning team in the 1995-96 season, went about his pugilistic duties with a similar grudge.

Patrick Bordeleau doesn't seem to suffer from such ambivalence about his job.

"To be honest, I love to fight," said Bordeleau, the Avs' heavyweight, fourth-line enforcer so far this season. "My dad was a brawler back in the day. I think it's in my blood. My dad's 6-(foot)-4, 280 (pounds)."

Bordeleau is an NHL rookie -- at 26 years old. The Avalanche is his 11th professional team, but first in the NHL. From outposts such as Wheeling, W.Va., and Augusta, Ga., from Albany, N.Y. to Cleveland, Bordeleau punched plenty of low-rent timecards en route to the NHL.

When Avalanche coach Joe Sacco decreed that his team would be harder to play against this season -- in part meaning the Avs wouldn't hesitate to drop the gloves when pushed around -- it created a job opportunity for the 6-6, 220-pound Bordeleau. Making the team out of training camp became easier when forward Ryan O'Reilly stayed out as a contract holdout and veteran Chuck Kobasew was out with the flu. After about six years of struggles in the minors, Bordeleau's NHL promotion gave him an "Am I dreaming?" moment. But the dream was real.

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"You'll always be able to see in the books now -- Bordeleau, 1 GP," said Bordeleau, who now has four games played entering Monday night's game against the Oilers in Edmonton. "It's a great feeling. I like my role. I started out my pro career as a skill player in the East Coast League, but my coach told me, 'You've got a lot of skill, you'll be good in this league. But if you want to make it to the National Hockey League, you have to change your style.' And that's what I did."

That coach was John Marks, when Bordeleau played for the Pensacola (Fla.) Ice Pilots in 2007-08. His penalty minutes increased from 26 the year before to 60, and by 2008 he was playing in the American Hockey League, putting up many more penalty minutes than points.

But Bordeleau spent more than three full seasons with the Avs' AHL affiliate, Lake Erie, without getting a sniff from the big club. It might have had something to do with his penalty minutes decreasing the last two seasons. But the fact is, fights became hard to come by for Bordeleau. He got too good at it.

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